WUNC: “Their daughter and a younger sibling found a gay-friendly church, College Park Baptist Church in Greensboro. They “started attending with our blessing because we knew if she continued attending our church, she’d be totally turned off to God,” Caroline Joyce said.
The College Park church found itself in the news last week when the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee voted to remove it from its rolls because of its “open affirmation, approval and endorsement of homosexual behavior.” That action came 23 years after the congregation itself voted to leave the SBC, but according to the Executive Committee, it had remained on its rolls until now.
But the very thing that prompted the Southern Baptists’ disapproval is what attracted the Joyces themselves to College Park. The parents eventually followed their children’s path and joined the congregation. They even moved from the suburbs to the city of Greensboro to be closer to the College Park church, its activities and the friends they made there.
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The Rev. Michael Usey, the lead pastor, said that Southern Baptist officials actually identified the church’s ethos correctly.
“It’s good when people reject you because they understand clearly who you are,” he said. “The irony is, they’re excluding us for not excluding people.””